Richard Arkwright, Cotton Entrepreneur, England, United Kingdom Weavers' Cottages in Cromford. Early Life Richard Arkwright was born 23 December 1732 at Preston in Lancashire, the youngest of 13 children of Thomas and his wife Ellen. Thomas was a small farmer and sometime tailor. Richard served his apprenticeship as a barber and wig maker in Preston with a man called Nicholson and it is believed that he was taught to read by his uncle. Later in life, at the age of 50 he undertook additional study to improve his command of English and his handwriting. Arkwright moved to Bolton in about 1750 to work with Mr. Pollitt a barber and peruke maker. Mr. Pollitt died and Arkwright continued the business for his widow until 1755. During his time at Bolton, Richard Arkwright met Thomas Ridgeway, a dyer and bleacher, and his friend, Robert Holt, a school master. Arkwright married Robert Holt's daughter, Patience, on 31 March 1755. Richard and Patience's had a son, Richard, born 19 December 1755 at Bolton.

Patience Arkwright died soon afterwards. Richard left his employment with Mrs. Pollitt and set up on his own as a barber-surgeon with the support of Robert Holt. He was involved not only in wig making but also in drawing teeth, and in blood taking, a common practice at the time in medicine. On the death of his wife, Richard Arkwright's relationship with Robert Holt broke down, possibly because Holt had never approved of the marriage and blamed Arkwright for her death. Robert Holt erected a memorial for his daughter in Bolton churchyard, which does not mention her husband or son. On 24 March 1761 Richard married Margaret Biggins of Pennington at Leigh parish church. Their first daughter, Susannah was born on 20 December the same year. Margaret had £400 which the couple used to buy a buy a beer house known as the Black Boy in Bolton but later they sold up to focus on wig making. About this time Arkwright would travel the country, particularly to hiring fairs, to purchase hair from servant girls. He also had a means of dyeing hair.

Developments in Cotton Spinning before Arkwright In the early 18th century English cotton usually had linen warps and cotton wefts as the thread could not be made strong enough for use as warp. There was usually a shortage of thread as the method of hand spinning produced only one thread at a time. John Wyatt (1700-1766), a carpenter, and Lewis Paul (died 1759), the son of a French emigre, working in Lichfield, invented an apparatus for spinning in 1733. It was patented in 1738. The principle was to draw the fibres through sets of rollers turning at different speeds. It was successful for a time but was superseded by Richard Arkwright's water frame in the 1770s. Paul patented a later spinning machine in 1758 that did not involve rollers and also a carding engine in 1748. John Wyatt later worked at Matthew Boulton's Soho foundry. According to Baines' History of Lancashire, Laurence Earnshaw of Mottram in Cheshire invented a spinning machine which he demonstrated in 1753.

However he destroyed the machine thinking it would deprive the poor of their living. In 1738, John Kay of Bury, living at that time in Colchester, invented the flying shuttle which doubled the speed of weaving. He returned to Bury and used the process initially for woollen weaving but from 1760 it was extensively used for cotton. Robert Kay, his son, invented the drop box to allow up to three coloured wefts to be used. The increased speed of weaving created a shortage of yarn, which stimulated the development of mechanical spinning. Thomas Highs, a reed maker of Leigh was a member of the Swedenborgian sect. He worked in 1763/4 with another John Kay, a clock maker of Warrington, and developed a spinning machine using six spindles for converting roving, a loose cotton rope, into weft. Some improvements were made by James Hargreaves of Blackburn to produce the spinning jenny in 1767, which he patented in 1770. This was a hand operated machine with six spindles and by 1788 there were about 20,000 in use.

Hargreaves fled Lancashire because of opposition from hand spinners and went to Nottingham. Highs employed Kay to make his double roller system out of metal; this involved two pairs of rollers the first turning slower than the second so that the thread was drawn out. The yarn produced was more suitable for warp; the product from the spinning jenny was used mainly for weft. Arkwright's Contribution to Cotton Spinning In 1767, Arkwright became acquainted with John Kay, the clock maker, who was then working in Warrington. They experimented with ideas for spinning in secret because of the fear of competition. In 1768 Kay and Arkwright moved to Preston. They had financial backing from John Smalley (died 1782) a Preston publican and David Thornley, a merchant in Liverpool. They worked in Preston on their ideas for spinning cotton but in 1768, Arkwright, Kay and Smalley left for Nottingham because of local fears about the impact of such a development. Some of Arkwright's prototypes had been damaged at Chorley and James Hargreaves premises in Blackburn had been attacked.

In Nottingham, Arkwright met Ichabod Wright, a timber and iron merchant who had established a bank in 1759. He gave some financial assistance but his role was taken over by two other entrepreneurs. Samuel Need of Nottingham (died 1781) was a mercer and later a banker and Jebediah Strutt (1726-1797) of Derby was a silk mill owner and inventor of the Derby Rib Stocking. A partnership was formed, lasting for fourteen years, and a patent filed in 1769. The first mill was in Woolpack Lane near the Lace Market was horse powered. However, Arkwright would have been aware of the potential for water power from the mill on the river Derwent at Derby which had been used for spinning silk using the invention of Thomas Lombe. The Cromford mill in Derbyshire, eventually of six storeys, was built in 1771 and was water powered. This was not the Masson Mill, which was built later. Because the spinning frame was driven by water power it became known as the water frame. The new yarn was used initially in stocking making but not by the cotton manufacturing trade in Manchester.

This yarn was suitable for warp as well as weft and in 1773 Arkwright produced the first cloth made entirely of cotton. For the making of stockings, fashion demanded fineness and the stocking machines required the thread to be strong. Arkwright's thread was was not quite as fine as the best quality linen thread. Such thread was finally achieved by Crompton's mule. A special act of Parliament was passed 1774 to exempt Arkwright's fabric from the double duty imposed on cottons by an act of 1736. Such taxes were introduced to protect the English woollen trade from the East India Company's importation of cotton. The change in legislation was opposed by the Lancashire manufacturers who were using linen warps. By this stage, Arkwright and his backers had spent £12,000 on capital investment. Improved spinning put pressure on the earlier processes involved. Carding was initially done by hand using two bats covered in teasel spikes or metal pins. In 1772, John Lees invented the feeder process in which cotton was carded using rollers covered in short pins.

In the same year James Hargreaves, of Spinning Jenny fame, invented a process for taking the cotton off a carding cylinder to create a fleece or cardings. The following year Thomas Highs and in 1774 Mr. Wood, came up with perpetual or endless carding. The cardings went to a roving frame of rollers similar to those on a water frame to draw out the threads and give them a slight twist. This created a thick thread with little twist and low strength ready for the final spinning process. In 1775 Arkwright sought a second patent including many additions for improving the spinning process and preparing the cotton prior to spinning, including carding and roving. This led to a dispute as it was claimed that Arkwright, in including the same process in his second patent, was trying to extend the cover from his first patent. Arkwright built more mills and licensed his methods to other manufacturers. He built a new mill in Chorley which was destroyed by rioters. Arkwright developed the village of Cromford by building houses with a well-lit third storey, many of which survive today, for the use of stocking knitters.

By 1782 there were 5,000 people involved in spinning employing a capital of £200,000. In the same year, Arkwright ended his partnership with Strutt and Need, retaining as his share the mill at Cromford. Arkwright was a relatively benevolent employer for the period. He did not use parish apprentices. Women and children worked in the spinning mill, often for long hours, while the stocking weavers, working in their own homes were men. The houses were in effect tied cottages and tenure depended on remaining a good employee of the Arkwright enterprise. Other services provided included funds to enable the purchase of cows for milking; he gave 27 cows to his senior workmen. In addition he was the sponsor of sick clubs and provided some elementary welfare services. There were also holidays, two balls a year at the Greyhound Hotel, and a candle lighting festival with food and drink in September. Pay rates in 1797 are recorded as follows: children from 8 to 14, 1 to 5 shillings; adult women, 3 to 5 shillings; overseers, 12 shillings a week.

Arkwright expanded his interests very considerably by buying the Willersley estate and manor. In 1788, he purchased the manor of Cromford and began to build a church and Willesley Castle as a residence. In 1790 he obtained a charter for a market at Cromford and he built the Greyhound Inn next to the market place. His second mill of seven storeys was built in 1776. The Masson Mill, powered by the river Derwent, was built of brick after Arkwright acquired the site of a paper mill. The first mill was destroyed by fire in 1777 and completely rebuilt. The original partners finally split up. Samuel Need died in 1781 and Smalley in 1782. Arkwright and Strutt bought Smalley's share in the partnership from his son for £10,751 and Arkwright bought Strutt out of his share. The latter had a thriving business of his own in stockings with mills in Belper and Milford. Samuel Crompton invented the 'mule' in 1779.

This was combination of Hargreaves' jenny and Arkwright's water-frame. The "mule" vastly increased productivity, making it possible for a single operator to work more than 1,000 spindles simultaneously; it was capable of spinning fine as well as coarse yarn. Demand for Crompton's yarn was heavy, but he could not afford a patent. He therefore revealed the machine's secret to a number of manufacturers on the promise that they would pay him. All he received was £60. Years later (in 1812), when there were at least 360 mills using 4,600,000 mule spindles, Parliament granted him £5,000. He used it to enter business, unsuccessfully, first as a bleacher and then as a cotton merchant and spinner. However, Crompton's mule gradually overtook Arkwright's water frame as the preferred method of spinning because of the greater productivity and high quality of the product. The Legal Challenge to Arkwright's Patents Arkwright conceded that he was the improver rather than the inventor of the process for producing a coarse thread on spindles.

He claimed that this was invented by Hargreaves of Blackburn with his Spinning Jenny. Arkwright's opponents claimed that Thomas Highs had made the inventions and Arkwright had obtained the secret from John Kay, the clock maker. It was also claimed that Arkwright credited Hargreaves with this invention so as to keep his case as remote as possible from Highs who, it was said, invented the water frame too. In 1781 Arkwright brought an action against 9 cotton spinning firms to prevent them infringing his patent: the first was against Colonel Mordaunt. While Mordaunt accepted that he was using Arkwright's method of making yarn he claimed that the patent specification was insufficiently clear to allow anyone to follow it. It is a requirement of a patent that the method must be fully disclosed by the applicant in return for which he receives a monopoly for limited number of years. On this point, Arkwright's case failed and he dropped the other cases. Arkwright was eager to get his two patents recognised, the first expired in 1783 and the second would expire in 1789.

In 1785 he took the case to the court of Common Pleas and won the argument that the invention could be worked from his specification. Witnesses examined included Mr. Harrison the son of the inventor of the marine chronometer, Mr. Cumming a watchmaker, Dr. Darwin and James Watt. This reinstated his monopoly to the alarm of the manufacturers who were infringing. It was estimated that up to 30,000 people were employed in the industry and the owners, who had expanded their business while the patent was believed to be invalid, now faced the possibility of paying royalties. A number combined to challenge the ruling and the case was heard at the court of the King's Bench in June 1785. It would be reasonable to assume that Arkwright's opponents, given the amount of money at stake, left no stone unturned in prosecuting their case. The key issues were whether the invention was new, invented by Arkwright and adequately described in the specification. His opponents gathered evidence that several elements of his machinery were derived from earlier inventors. Kay the watchmaker and Thomas Highs were called as witnesses. Kay claimed that he had made the original models for the process invented by Highs.

However, Kay admitted that he had passed details of Highs' invention to Arkwright. Highs claimed to have made rollers for spinning in 1767 but agreed that they would not have worked. It was not until 1769, when Arkwright had already moved to Nottingham, that Highs hit on the idea of covering the rollers with leather to obtain a superior grip on the yarn. Highs claimed that he was too poor to proceed with his inventions. Under the judge's guidance the jury found against Arkwright and the patent was declared invalid. Final Years Despite the loss of his patent coverage in 1785, Arkwright had a leading position in the spinning industry. His headstart gave him an advantage over other manufacturers. In 1784 he visited Scotland to help plan the New Lanark Mills with David Dale. These mills are perhaps best known now for their association with Robert Owen. Arkwright prospered from his own business, from licences for his patents, and from taking shares in other enterprises. By 1788 there were some 143 factories using his technology and he was a shareholder in 110.

Of these 22 were in Derbyshire, 17 in Nottinghamshire, 41 in Lancashire, 17 in Wales and 13 in Scotland. Arkwright built new mills in Lancashire and Derbyshire and in 1790 had a Boulton and Watt steam engine to power his mill in Nottingham. His mill in Manchester was powered from the late 1780s but in differnt sources the date is given as 1786 and 1789. Lewis's Manchester Directory for 1788 shows that Sir Richard Arkwright had a cotton twist warehouse at Cromford Court but the directory does not mention a spinning mill. Arkwright owned land in Manchester and had built the first cotton mill in the town. He had as a neighbour and tenant the firm Quincey and Drake, importers and wholesalers of Irish linen. Quincey settled in Manchester in 1780, but died of tuberculosis aged 38 in 1743, at the house he had built and named Greenway. His son was the author Thomas de Quincy. (Manchester Streets and Manchester Men, seconds series, by T.

Swindells, Manchester, 1907.) Arkwright was knighted in 1786 and became High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1787. His portrait was painted by Joseph Wright of Derby. He died on 3 August 1792 and was buried intially at St. Giles in Matlock and later at his own chapel, St. Mary's. Arkwright's wife, Margaret, had left him in the 1780 to live in Wirksworth with her daughter, who was Mrs. Charles Hurt. Margaret had had two other daughters, who died in infancy. Margaret lived until 25 December 1811 when she was 79. Sir Richard's son, Richard, was brought up in the business and given a mill at Bakewell. On his father's death he succeeded to the business empire. He sold some of the mills, became a banker and is said to have doubled his fortune in his lifetime. He was the richest untitled man in England. He died at Willesley on 23 April 1843. Concluding Remarks Whenever a great invention is made there is a dispute as to who should take the credit.

Frequently an advance comes from putting together a number of smaller steps made by a number of individuals. Often the inventor is not the best person to develop the invention as this needs capital, a knowledge of managing a great project and some business sense. Arkwright's real contribution to the invention of mechanical spinning is not clear as there are competing claims and several authors have been partisan in making their claims for and against Arkwright. What cannot be doubted is that Arkwright put together the various processes needed to turn raw cotton into strong yarn by mechanised processes. Where others had made contributions but failed to patent them or find financial backers, Arkwright had the business sense to see his processes commercialised and built a cotton spinning empire. Other manufacturers wanted to use his processes and Arkwright would frequently grant permission under his patents on the condition that he had a stake in the company. In this way his wealth and influence grew. The extensive article in the Dictionary of National Biography quotes several sources of information, but does not include two books from the early 19th century which I have consulted. The article claims that Arkwright showed a high level of inventive genius in devising the new way of pulling out thread using two pairs of rollers. It is claimed to be a new principle.

The article makes only the briefest mention of the prior work of Wyatt and Paul, who first used rollers for spinning in the 1730s. Wyatt and Paul's work is covered in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Moreover, in Biographia Borealis, Lives of Distinguished Northerners, by Hartley Coleridge, it is stated in relation to the work of Wyatt and Paul that "no model or description of the machines now remains". This is not true; abstracts of the original patent are published and still available for view in the Patent Section of Manchester Central Library! To a Lancastrian, one of the more surprising features of the development of cotton spinning is that although the main steps were made by Lancashire men, Hargreaves, Highs, Kay, Arkwright, and Crompton they were not initially backed by Lancashire merchants and manufacturers and the first water powered spinning mill was at Cromford in Derbyshire; the second was at Belper in the same county. Arkwright's first steam powered mill was in Nottingham in 1790. Drinkwater's mill in Manchester has a claim to be the first to have a steam engine, in 1789.

These were followed rapidly by McConnel Kennedy and the Chorlton Mills in the 1790s. Although Boulton and Watt had patents on their steam engines they had competitors in Sherrat and Bateman in Manchester who pirated some of their inventions and, being based locally, were able to exploit the growing demand from cotton manufacturers. Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Cromford, - A History, by Peter J. Naylor, in The Derbyshire Heritage Series, 1999, ISBN 184173-007-6. Chapter 4: The Age of Arkwright. Biographia Borealis, Lives of Distinguished Northerners, by Hartley Coleridge, published by Whitaker & Treacher, London, Leeds and Bingley, 1833. A Compendious History of the Cotton Manufacture with a disavowal of the claim of Sir Richard Arkwright, by R. Guest, published by Joseph Pratt, 1823.

Hutchinson Encyclopaedia on CD ROM Encyclopaedia Britannica on CD ROM History of the Textile Industry in Manchester, a course of lectures by Chris Makepeace at Wilmslow Guild in 2000. Four Centuries of Lancashire Cotton, by Geoffrey Timmins, published by Lancashire County Books, 1996, paperback, 92 pages, ISBN 1-871236-41-X. In addition to giving a short but authoritative account of the cotton industry with numerous references to original sources, this book has many illustrations of machinery and mills. A Cotton Enterprise, 1795-1840, a history of McConnel & Kennedy, fine cotton spinners, by C. H. Lee, published by Manchester University Press, 1972, ISBN 0 7190 0486 1. Samuel Oldknow and the Arkwrights, the industrial revolution in Marple and Stockport, by George Unwin, first edition 1923, second edition published by Augustus Kelly, New York, 1968.

The Baldwin Project: Great Inventors and Their Inventions by Frank P. Bachman THE INVENTION OF SPINNING MACHINES: THE JENNY, THE WATER FRAME, AND THE MULE [87] WHILE men were working on inventions to provide power to drive machines, and to furnish easy means of transportation and travel, others were working on inventions to be used on the farm, in the factory and the home, in the production and manufacture of articles of food, clothing, and shelter. The first of these inventions of manufacture and production were the spinning machines. THE DISTAFF AND SPINDLE The oldest spinning machine is the distaff and spindle. The spindle, the chief part of all machine spinning, is a slender round piece of wood or iron about twelve inches long, tapering toward each end. On the upper end, there is a notch or slit in which to fasten the thread. The distaff is a round stick, three or four feet long. One end [88] is used to hold the loose supply of wool or cotton. The other end of the stick is held under the left arm, and is often fastened in a girdle at the belt.

When spinning with the distaff and spindle, the spinner pulls out from the loose wool or cotton on the distaff, a small piece, and twists the end of it by hand. This finished end is fastened into the notch or slit of the spindle. The spinner sets the spindle whirling, by rolling it between her right hand and leg, or by a twisting motion of the hand. Then the spindle is left to whirl as it dangles at her side. With her left hand she holds the loose thread, and with her right hand she draws it out to the proper size, as it is twisted by the whirling spindle. When a thread two or three feet long is thus properly twisted, the thread is unfastened from the upper end of the spindle and wound on the lower end. This process is continued until all the material on the distaff is spun. SPINNING WITH THE DISTAFF. Until about the time of the Revolutionary War, all the woolen, flax, and cotton yarn used in the world was spun [89] thus. From such yarn were woven the clothes of peasant and prince alike. Even to-day, women may be seen in the Holy Land, spinning in this old-fashioned way.

THE SPINNING WHEEL The first improvement on this ancient method was the spinning wheel. This is a machine to whirl the spindle by turning a wheel. When the spinning wheel is employed, the cleaned wool or cotton is first carded, then twisted loosely, and finally spun into yarn. The carding is done with hand cards, big coarse nail brushes, about twelve inches long and five inches wide. The cotton is spread on one card and combed with another, until the fibers all lie in one direction. It is then taken off in fleecy rolls, about twelve inches long and three quarters of an inch thick. These short cardings are twisted on the spinning wheel, into a loose thread, or roving, about the size of a candlewick. The rovings are wound on reels or bobbins, and finally spun into the finished yarn. CARDING WOOL BY HAND. The spinning wheel was a big advance over the distaff. The spindle could be kept whirling more rapidly and easily. The hands were free to fasten the short cardings together and draw them into rovings, or free to draw out the roving [90] and to hold it while being twisted into yarn.

One spinner could now spin as much yarn as a half dozen had done before. The yarn was more even, and better twisted. SPINNING WHEEL. Spinning wheels were to be found in most homes until about 1840, and many are to be seen there now, preserved as curiosities. The mother always spun enough cotton and wool to supply the family with "linsey-woolsey" for clothes, and with yarns for socks. JAMES HARGREAVES AND THE SPINNING JENNY The spinning wheel, which made only one thread at a time, was displaced by the spinning jenny, on which twenty, fifty, a hundred, and even a thousand threads can be spun at once. The inventor was James Hargreaves, an Englishman. Hargreaves sat pondering one day over a faster way to [91] spin cotton. His wife was busy in another part of the small room. Her spinning wheel for some cause toppled over. The spindle, which was thrown from a horizontal to an upright position, continued to whirl.

Hargreaves saw, by one of those flashes of thought which come to the genius, that, if a number of spindles were placed upright side by side, and a way found to draw out the rovings as they were twisted, a number of threads could be spun by one pair of hands at one time. The idea of the spinning jenny was thus born. The invention was named jenny after Hargreaves' wife. HARGREAVES DISCOVERS THE SPINNING JENNY. [92] One person can spin with a jenny as much yarn as twenty to a hundred can spin, using the old spinning wheel. The yarn, too, is of better quality. Besides, boys and girls between the ages of twelve and fourteen can operate it even better than grown persons. The invention [93] of the jenny thus marks the beginning of child labor in cotton and woolen factories. The first jenny was completed about 1767. Hargreaves tried to keep his invention a secret, and to use it only in his own home. But he was tempted to make a few jennies to sell, to buy necessities for his children.

In time, the spinners learned that he had a wonderful spinning machine with which a twelve-year-old girl could do as much work as a dozen grown persons with the spinning wheel. People at that time were not used to machines. It was the age of handwork, and they had not yet learned that machines in the end make more work and better wages. They only saw that this invention would lessen the number of spinners needed, and would deprive them of work. So the spinners, who as a rule were women, along with their husbands and friends, rose up against the inventor. A mob broke into his house and broke all the jennies that could be found, and Hargreaves had to flee for his life. To protect his invention, he took out a patent in 1770, but this did no good. The spinning jenny was so easy to make that the manufacturers, quick to see its merits, made their own, and refused to pay any royalty on them. Thus it came about that Hargreaves received nothing for an invention which for forty years was the principal machine used in spinning cotton yarn, and still remains, as improved, the chief machine employed in spinning wool.

He did not, however, live and die in poverty, as the story is often told. From a yarn factory of which he was part owner, he made a good living for himself and his family. RICHARD ARKWRIGHT AND THE WATER FRAME Cloth is made of two kinds of thread, the warp running lengthwise, and the woof running crosswise. Warp is a stronger thread than woof. Neither the spinning wheel nor the jenny made a cotton thread strong enough for warp. The warp in all cotton cloth up to this time was for this reason linen, and only the woof cotton. Linen thread costs more than cotton thread, and this made cotton cloth more expensive than if both the warp and woof were cotton. If cotton cloth was to be cheaper, a way had to be found to spin a cotton thread strong enough for warp. The man who succeeded was Richard Arkwright, also an Englishman. ARKWRIGHT SELLING HAIR TO A WIGMAKER. Richard Arkwright was the youngest of thirteen children [95] in a poor family. If he ever went to school, it was only for a short time.

To make up for his lack of early education, Arkwright, when more than fifty years old and when working from five o'clock in the morning until nine at night, took an hour each day to study English grammar, and another hour to improve his spelling and writing. When a boy, he did all sorts of odd jobs, and finally became a barber. Even as a barber, he showed that he was a man of enterprise. The usual price for a shave was two pence. Arkwright made his price a penny. When the other barbers lowered their price to one penny, he advertised "a good shave for a half penny." By the time he was thirty, Arkwright had enough of shaving. He took up buying and selling hair to be used in wigs, which were stylish at the time. He went about the country from cottage to cottage, and became an expert in getting young girls to part with their long, glossy locks. He also came into possession of a secret way of dyeing hair, which added to its value.

As a dealer in hair, he gained a sort of reputation, for the wigmakers pronounced "Arkwright's hair the best in the country." As a barber and as a dealer in hair, Arkwright had a good opportunity to talk with people about spinning, about the lack of yarn, and about the different spinning machines that were being invented. Whether he got the idea from one of his customers, or from other inventions, or whether he was wise enough to see the need himself, at all events, he made up his mind to invent a spinning machine. Like other inventors before and after him, he began to neglect his regular business. Instead of saving money, he spent more than he earned. So before the first [96] successful model was completed, he had spent all his savings, and his family were in want. Arkwright's machine, patented in 1769, spun cotton, flax, or wool. Pairs of rollers drew out the rovings, and flying spindles did the rest. The machine is called the water frame because it was first driven by water power, but a better name is the roll-drawing spinning machine. ARKWRIGHT'S FIRST SPINNING FRAME.

His invention was even a greater one than Hargreaves'. [97] The water frame spun such a strong thread that it could be used for warp. Cloth could now be made for the first time entirely of cotton, and it was not long before English calicoes made their appearance. The thread was also so strong that it could be used for knitting cotton socks. Hargreaves' spinning jenny was suited only to spin thread from rovings, while the rovings had to be twisted on the spinning wheel. But the water frame twisted the rovings as well as spun the finished yarn. The water frame thus did away with the spinning wheel in factories, but not with the spinning jenny. The spinning jenny continued to be used to make the softer threads for woof, while the [98] water frame was employed to twist rovings and to spin the harder and stronger yarns. ARKWRIGHT WATER FRAME. Like Hargreaves, Arkwright received next to nothing for an invention which is busy to-day the world over, spinning the warp for the cloth used by millions of people. But he did not stop with the water frame.

He went on and on, making one invention after another, until he had a number of machines, best described by calling them a cotton-yarn factory. The uncleaned cotton was put into the first of these, and it came out of the last, the water frame, as snow-white, well-twisted thread. Arkwright was not only a great inventor, but he proved to be a good business man. For a time, he made little from his inventions or from a cotton manufactory of which he was part owner. It was not long, however, before wealth began to flow his way. He finally became one of the most important cotton-mill owners in England, and for a number of years controlled the market price of cotton yarn. Shortly before his death he was made a knight. SAMUEL CROMPTON AND THE MULE The spinning jenny spun good woof. The water frame spun good warp. But neither of these inventions spun yarn fine enough to weave muslin. All the muslin of the day came from India. The Hindu spinners were so skillful that they could make the very finest yarn, even on the spinning wheel.

The spinning machine which broke India's hold on the muslin trade was the mule, invented in 1779 by Samuel Crompton, another Englishman. From early childhood Samuel helped his widowed [99] mother, who supported her only son and her two daughters by keeping a cow or two, by having a good garden, and by spinning and weaving. Samuel's "little legs became accustomed to the loom almost as soon as they were long enough to touch the treadles." Yet he went to school regularly, and was given a good education. Going to school did not, however, relieve him from a certain amount of spinning and weaving each day. His mother was in her way loving and kind, but woe unto Samuel if his daily amount of spinning and weaving was not done. HAND LOOM. Whether or not the eight-spindle jenny used by Samuel was a poor one, much of his time was taken up in "mending the ever-breaking ends of his miserable yarn." To escape the reproach of his exacting mother, it kept him forever busy to do the allotted stint of spinning and weaving. [100] Then, too, Samuel was an excellent workman.

It may be that he longed to weave cloth as beautiful and delicate as the muslins of India. At any rate, by the time he was twenty-one years of age, he began to think how a better spinning machine than the jenny could be made. Most inventors are inspired by the hope that from their inventions they will gain both fame and wealth. From childhood, Crompton had been much alone. Spinning and weaving was not then, as now, done in big factories. He knew very little about the world, and less about how valuable a great invention might be. CROMPTON'S MULE. Crompton worked on the new machine from the time he was twenty-one until he was twenty-six. He says: "The next five years had this . . . added to my labor as a weaver . . . , a continuous endeavor to make a more perfect spinning machine. Though often baffled, I as often renewed the attempt, and at length succeeded to my [101] utmost desire, at the expense of every shilling I had in the world." It might be added, at the expense also of the good will of his neighbors. Strange sounds were heard coming from Crompton's home.

Lights were seen at all hours of the night. The rumor went about that the house was haunted. It was soon discovered that Crompton was the ghost. But when relieved of their fears of a ghost, the neighbors found that they had in their midst a "conjuror," the term of contempt applied to an inventor. So Crompton became an object of suspicion. Hardly was the first mule completed, when the anti-machine riots of 1779 broke out. Mobs of spinners and weavers went about crying, "Men, not machines." Rioters went everywhere, destroying all the jennies and water frames they could lay their hands on, especially all jennies having more than twenty spindles. The usual number was eighty. Crompton knew that his invention would arouse the rioters even more than the jenny or the water frame. Fearing that they would destroy it, he took it to pieces and hid it in the garret of his workroom. There it lay for weeks, before he had courage to bring it down and put it together. He now learned for the first time what his machine would do.

After a little practice, he could spin yarn on it fine enough for the most delicate muslin. His invention is called the mule, because it combines in one machine the best points in Arkwright's water frame and the best points in Hargreaves' spinning jenny. Be- [102] fore this, the greatest length of yarn ever spun from a pound of cotton was less than 70,000 yards. With the mule, it was possible to spin, from a single pound of cotton, a thread 300,000 yards in length. Crompton's only idea in inventing the mule, as stated before, was to make a machine for his own use. The way before him now seemed clear, and he married. For a few months he prospered, and he and his wife were happy. But such a valuable invention could not be kept a secret long. Crompton's yarn was the finest that came to the market, and he received the highest price for it. His neighbors began to ask, "How can Sam Crompton make such fine yarn? He must have a new kind of spinning machine." Some of them went to his home to see.

Crompton, of course, tried to keep them from learning about his invention. He wanted to be let alone, so that he might reap the fruits of his labor. He even went so far as to put a special lock on his workroom, and to put screens at the windows. But his neighbors were not to be outdone. They called at unexpected times. They even brought ladders and looked over the screens. One fellow, it is said, lay in the loft overhead for days, and peeped down through a knot hole. [103] This spying almost drove Crompton mad. He even thought of breaking his invention to pieces. "A few months reduced me," he afterwards wrote, "to the cruel necessity either of destroying my machine altogether or of giving it up to the public. It was not in my power to keep it and work it. To destroy it, I could not think of that; to give up that for which I had labored so long was cruel. I had no patent nor the means of purchasing one. In preference to destroying it, I gave it to the public." To induce him to do this, some manufacturers promised to raise a liberal purse.

The total subscription amounted to only about three hundred and thirty dollars, but no sooner was the invention made public than the subscriptions stopped. Worse still, some of the subscribers refused to pay what they had promised. Crompton scarcely received enough to make him a new mule, for he had given up to the manufacturers the one he was working with, to be used by them as a model in making others. The first mule was a crude affair, and had not more than twenty or thirty spindles. Mules of to-day are among our most beautifully constructed machines, and some of them carry a thousand spindles. The mule, like the jenny, was first worked by a spinner, but to-day they are self-acting, that is, they work themselves. The mule as thus improved is the most wonderful of all spinning machines, and is used the world over, to spin both the warp and the woof of all the finer kinds of cotton goods, and the woof of the coarser cotton cloth. Crompton did not go wholly unrewarded, however. In part payment for the benefits of his invention, Parliament voted him twenty-five thousand dollars.

But this was [104] soon wasted by his sons in business. A few years before his death he almost came to want. Some admiring friends then raised by private subscription a fund which gave him an annual income of three hundred dollars. Without this, he would probably have died in poverty. The Spinning Jenny The Spinning Jenny one of the machines that launched the Industrial Revolution and the modern industrial age Until the 18th century, cloth was manufactured largely by means of what was known as the "putting out" system. A cloth merchant would provide raw wool, cotton, or flax to spinners and weavers, who would then process it into bales of cloth and return it for marketing to the merchant, who would pay them at the current piecework rate. It was a true cottage industry for the most part, as the vast majority of the spinners and weavers worked out of their cottage homes. James Hargreaves (ca. 1722-1778), who lived in the village of Standhill, Lancashire, England, was one of those cottage weavers who owned his own spinning wheel and loom.

According to his own story, the idea for the spinning jenny came about in 1764, when his daughter Jenny tipped over a spinning wheel by accident and the spindle continued to revolve. It made Hargreaves think that a whole line of spindles could be worked off one wheel. Hargreaves built his first model of the jenny using eight spindles onto which the thread was spun from a corresponding set of rovings. All eight threads could then be spun by the muscle power of one person. The jenny's primary limitation was that the thread it produced was coarse and lacked a certain degree of strength, making it suitable only for the filling or weft, the threads woven across the warp. He began to build his machines for more general sale, and gradually improved them to the point where each could work up to 30 spindles. After a group of local weavers broke into his house and smashed all of his machines, Hargreaves moved to Nottingham and established a partnership with a businessman. The two constructed a small mill which used jennies to spin hosiers' yarn.

Unfortunately, Hargreaves delayed in applying for a patent for his spinning jenny, and did not get it patented until 1770. Although he did make money on his invention, his resulting fortune was far less than it could have been. In 1779, Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule, an adaptation of Hargreaves' jenny. Crompton's machine produced yarn of a tensile quality matching that produced by hand spinning. The mule also applied some of the principles of the water frame developed by Richard Arkwright some 10 years earlier. One operator on the mule could spin up to 1,000 threads. Like Hargreaves, Crompton failed to profit from his invention. Although there were 360 mills using the spinning mule by 1812, most manufacturers neglected to honor guarantees given to him. A parliamentary grant of ï¿½5,000 went some way toward compensating him, but he sank most of that money into business ventures that failed. SEE ALSO Richard Arkwright - Q-files Encyclopedia Cromford Mill today Too large to be hand-operated, Arkwright's frame needed a source of power to run it.

Along with his new business partners Jedediah Strutt and Samuel Need, he decided to harness the power of the water wheel, previously used for grinding grain and in papermaking . In 1771 Arkwright installed the machine in a purpose-built mill on the banks of the River Derwent in Cromford, Derbyshire. He still needed a workforce, so he had a number of cottages built close to the mill, and this workers came to work there, rather than in their own homes. Arkwright's mill was the first modern factory. Spinning mule. This is the original built by Samuel Crompton. Spinning mule A machine to spin cotton and other fibres, called the spinning mule, was invented between 1775 and 1779 by English inventor Samuel Crompton (1753–1827). It combined parts of the mechanisms from both Arkwright's spinning frame and Hargreaves' spinning jenny, enabling thread to be spun better than could be done by hand. It was used to manufacture muslin, a fine cotton fabric.

A working spinning mule Crompton was unable to afford to patent his invention, with the result that other manufacturers were able to copy it freely. The spinning mule became the standard machine in the textile industry from 1790 until the 20th century, with many thousands operating in Britain alone. James Hargreaves biography, list of James Hargreaves inventions | edubilla.com : weaver, carpenter and inventor About Inventor James Hargreaves was a weaver, carpenter and inventor in Lancashire, England. He was one of three inventors responsible for mechanising spinning. Hargreaves is credited with inventing the spinning jenny in 1764, Richard Arkwright patented the water frame in 1769, and Samuel Crompton combined the two creating the spinning mule a little later. Life and work James Hargreaves was born at Knuzden Brook near Stanhill, Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, he lived in Blackburn, then a town with a population of about 5,000, known for the production of "Blackburn greys," cloths of linen Warp and cotton weft. They were usually sent to London to be printed.

The demand for cotton yarn outstripped supply, and the one-thread spinning wheel could not keep up. Hargreaves was described as "stout, broadset man of about five-foot ten, or rather more".He married and baptismal records show he has 13 children,of whom the author Baines in 1835 was aware of '6 or 7'.He was survived by eight children. Spinning jenny The idea for the spinning jenny is said to have come from the inventor seeing a one-thread wheel overturned upon the floor, when both the wheel and the spindle continued to revolve. He realized that if a number of spindles were placed upright and side by side, several threads might be spun at once. The spinning jenny was confined to producing cotton weft, it was unable to produce yarn of sufficient quality for the warp. High quality warp was later supplied by Arkwright's spinning frame. Hargreaves produced the Jenny for himself but sold a few to neighbors. The jenny was initially welcomed by the hand spinners, but when the price of yarn fell the mood changed.

Opposition to the machine caused Hargreaves to leave for Nottingham, where the cotton hosiery industry benefited from the increased provision of suitable yarn. Arkwright also ended up in the town, and was even more successful. Hargreaves made jennies for a man called Shipley, and on 12 June 1770, he was granted a patent, which enabled him to take legal action against the Lancashire manufacturers who had begun using it. This action was withdrawn. With a partner Thomas James, Hargreaves ran a small mill in Hockley and lived in an adjacent house. The business was carried on until his death in 1778 when his wife received a payment of £400.When Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule in c.1779 he stated he had learned to spin in 1769 on a jenny that Hargreaves had constructed. As early as 1825, the distinguished author Edward Baines reports that there were many false claims being made about Hargreaves, and Arkwright. There had been a ferocious legal battle to get Arkwright's two most important patents annulled.

Thomas Highs of Leigh had claimed that he was the true inventor of both these devices and the spinning jenny as well.In his testimony, Arkwright had over-emphasised the humble nature of both himself and Hargreaves – some of which was not based on fact. He wrongly attributed the date of invention as 1767.Richard Guest opposed Arkwright, and the Edinburgh Review, No. 91 reported Guest's opinions and introduced other fallacies. Parish burial registers misspelt Hargreaves as Hargraves, but prove that he did not die in the workhouse.This was confirmed to Baines by Hargreaves's grandson, John James. What was the spinning mule? What was the spinning mule? Send to Kindle What was the Spinning Mule? Spinning Mule was an invention by Samuel Crompton, with significant impact on society during the Industrial Revolution. What was the significance of the spinning mule, and what were the long term effects that changed the way we worked and lived in the 19th Century? Watch the Spinning Mule operating in the video below.

None of the inventions of the industrial revolution happened in isolation, think of the industrial revolution as an explosion of ideas. Click here to view Intriguing History’s Agricultural and Industrial Timeline, to show the context of each invention and innovation. We will keep adding to it and hope you find it useful for your research. Crompton’s Spinning Mule Who invented the Spinning Mule? The Spinning Mule invented by a man called Samuel Crompton, born in Bolton Lancashire in 1753. Samuel lost his father when he was a young boy and had to help supplement the family income by spinning. He used a Spinning Jenny, invented by James Hargreaves but was frustrated by its defects and as a consequence set about inventing a new spinning machine. How did the Spinning Mule operate? The description of the Spinning Mule that follows will give you an idea of both the invention and its impact. The result was the mule, invented between 1775 – 1779, which took the moving carriage of the Jenny and combined it with the rollers of Arkwright’s water frame.

It gave greater control over the weaving process Spinners could make many different types of yarn Fine yarns could be spun How big was the machine? Each carriage carried 1320 spindles and was up to 46m long The carriage moved back and forth 1.5m four times a minute Watch the machine work, spinning wool at Bartlett Yarns The spinning mule was a major step forward in the textile industry and was one of a cluster of inventions that opened the way to a mechanized way of producing cloth that would radically change the way the textile industry worked. See Hargreaves Spinning Jenny. The spinning mule was perceived as a threat by some spinners who worked from home in a cottage industry. They saw saw an invention as an end to their livelihood. The textile work done by people up and down the country, in their own houses, was quite often the only work available when the weather was too poor or daylight hours too short to do agricultural work. Whole families would work the spinning wheels and looms. The loss of an entire families income would result in terrible hardship. The choice was grim, starve or enter the workhouse.

It is no wonder then, that inventions such as the spinning mule resulted in riots including the ‘Luddite’ riots. Find out more about the detail of the spinning mule at the Bolton Museum . Take a look at our Agricultural and Industrial Revolution Theme here The Spinning Mule Invention by Samuel Crompton Share By Mary Bellis By definition a spinning mule is an 18th century invention that spun textile fibers into yarn by an intermittent process: in the draw stroke, the roving is pulled through and twisted; on the return it is wrapped onto the spindle. History In 1779, Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule that combined the moving carriage of the spinning jenny with the rollers of the water frame . The spinning mule gave the spinner great control over the weaving process, many different types of yarn could be produced. It was improved upon by William Horrocks, known for his invention of the variable speed batton in 1813. Patent Troubles Many inventors of the eighteenth century encountered difficulty over their patents. Samuel Crompton failed to obtain a patent for his spinning mule, which was then patented by the famed industrialist Richard Arkwright .

It took Samuel Crompton over five years to invent and perfect the spinning mule. Crompton supported his inventing by working as a violinist at the Bolton Theatre for pennies a show, spending all his wages on the development of the spinning mule. A British Commons Committee, dealing with Samuel Crompton's patent claims in 1812 said that "the method of reward to an inventor, as generally accepted in the eighteenth century, was that the machine, etc., should be made public, and that a subscription should be raised by those interested, as a reward to the inventor." continue reading below our video What to Do If You Can't Pay Your Student Loans This was all right before invention required much capital, but after the industrial revolution money was almost absolutely essential for the production of any great technical improvement. Samuel Crompton

Question: Who invented the spinning mule that built on the work of James Hargreaves and Richard Arkwright?
Answer: SAMUEL CROMPTON